This Live performance showcases the most monstrous Power Trio to come out of the NC Rock scene of the 80's or any other time!
PKM was a semi spin-off of the band Nantucket. Pee Wee and Kenny were the rhythm section of the band. When Nantucket lost their deal with Epic Records, P and K split and picked up guitarist friend Mike Gardner to form this killer power trio.
While in the middle of prepping for The Accelerators videos LEAVE MY HEART and STILETTO, PKM dropped in and asked about a video. I had seen them before and knew how well they rocked and suggested a live performance rather than a music video. And so this Live five-camera production was scheduled for The Attic in Greenville.
The one thing you will notice about this video production is how the camera work is in your face. I had sort of trained the two stage photographers in my early days as production crew chief at WRAL-TV. When I arrived at WRAL in 1978, I was hired as a production crewmember, which meant that I ran a camera in the studio, mostly during news. But thanks to being thrown into all aspects of television production while working for ViaCom in New York, and thanks to my nasty New York attitude, within three months I pushed into WRAL middle management as Production Crew Chief. (My nasty New York attitude has since faded away - my sincere apologies to all!)
Art Howard and Robert Newton had arrived fresh from the media school at NC State University and were willing to listen to my rants on how to shoot video. They quickly become the premiere feature photographers at WRAL - thanks to their skills and talents. So here comes the PKM concert nearly six years later, giving me a chance to hire them both as the stage photographers for this concert. Their up-close and angular shots are standard photography for today's concerts, but in 1984 in was unseen. This was breaking all of the rules, especially having the stage cameras being seen on as part of the production. I didn't care that much about seeing the crew. I wanted the shots! And Art and Robert delivered beautifully.
PKM also delivered beautifully. Their Pop Metal Boogie Rock is still fresh today. If it wasn't for shots of the vintage mid-80's girls in the audience you might think the show was shot yesterday. On the technical side, it is the only video from all of my productions that can be cleanly upgraded to 1080i High Definition and 5.1 Surround Sound thanks to recording the show on one-inch video tape and having a 16-track audio master.
Within a month after PKM's performance, everything seemed to be falling apart. The production company that was to support the editing of the show, closed down. And so I was only able to cut two songs as a finished master. The rest of the concert has never been edited nor has the multi track audio ever been mixed. As this was happening, most of the bands I worked with had by April 1984 also split. A new phase of Comboland artists were starting to form, but I didn't hang around. After living in Raleigh for almost six-years, and shooting music videos for thirty-two months, I thought it was time for me to split too. I moved to Nashville, TN in August 1984.
As a performance and video production, this PKM concert rocks as hard today as it did in 1984. A concert that was shot and never finished. A concert I would like to present in its entirety someday soon.
SET LIST - Hot Town - Here I Go - Your Eyes - America Loves Football - Play It Cool - My Kind Of Girl - Some Kind Of Wonderful - I Don't Know - Long Night - Gimme A Call - Rock Erotica - Bun Runnin' - [Guitar Solo] - Summertime Blues - [Drum Solo] - Slow Down - It Don't Take Much - (encore #1) Breakdown - (encore #2) Mickey's Monkey
